Independent participatory media for Iran

After spending seven months in jail, Ali Jamali, the executive member of alumni student organization Danesh Amoukhtegan, was released for a three-day furlough after posting an exorbitant $400,000 in bail.

Jamali was arrested at his workplace last August and taken to Evin Prison, where he was sentenced to four years in prison for “insulting the leader, insulting the president, propaganda against the regime as well as assembly and collusion for disrupting internal security.”

Intelligence and judiciary officials have told him to report to the prosecutor’s office within three days to determine whether his bail could be extended.

Last year, Abdollah Momeni, a spokesman for Danesh Amoukhtegan, was released after eight months in jail on $850,000 bail. After he refused to speak against the opposition in a televised interview, he was returned to Evin Prison, where he remains.

Members of Danesh Amoukhtegan were commonly targeted for arrest following the controversial re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which led to widespread mass protests in Iran. The group had supported Ahmadinejad’s opponents during the elections. Its Secretary General, Ahmad Zeidabadi, is spending his second year in prison without a single day of furlough. He was arrested a few hours after the election outcome was announced on June 13, 2009.

He was taken to a Revolutionary Guards prison and, after 17 days on a hunger strike, was finally released to another section of the prison under the supervision of the ministry of intelligence.

He has been sentenced to five years in prison, six years exile to Gonabad and is banned from political and social activism for life.

Ali Malihi, the head of Danesh Amoukhtegan communications, and Hassan Asadi, the head of its human rights branch, are also in Evin Prison, serving similar sentences and prohibited from spending Norooz with their families.